A good seven months ago, Bwog began to hear murmurs on every city and/or foodie blog that the infamous Madison Square Park-based Shake Shack was to branch out and open an Upper West Side outpost. Ladies and gentlemen, the wait is over. Beginning today, no longer will you have to consult the Live Shake Cam (we're not kidding) in order to determine your waiting time at 23rd street — just stroll down to 77th and Columbus for your burger and custard fix (every Sunday in October is Shake Shiraz Poached Pear custard day!)

The menu now boasts some UWS-specific options for "concretes," SS for "milkshake." Bwog looks forward to sampling the "Natural History Crunch-stellation" with vanilla custard, Valrhona chocolate crunchies, and caramel. The Shack will be open from 11 AM-9 PM for its inaugural first few weeks as an Upper West Sider, but will be open from 11 AM-11 PM once (we quote) "the Shack is really shakin."

Welcome back to the Best of series in which Bwog analyzes the best in a category of chosen food product!

There are few things that are as much fun and as thirst-quenching as a margarita. And after a weekend of being nice to your parents or studying for midterms, there are few things as much sought after as a good margarita. Here, Bwog's Best of returns with a non-definitive guide to Morningside Height's best margaritas.

Blockheads

Theoretically Blockheads should be the perfect place to get a margarita. The clientele is loud and rowdy; the decor is a kitschy amalgam of Christmas lights and party streamers; and the price is just right. But when you're paying just $3 for a margarita, something's got to to be missing. What's missing in a Blockheads margarita is enough alcohol and enough fresh lime juice. It's questionable whether there's any lime juice at all because these cocktails are so saturated with syrupy margarita mix. Instead of a nice icy crunch, the consistency of Blockhead's margaritas is a slushy, unsalty mess, which definitely comes out of a can. Given the low alcohol quotient, you'll need about nine dollars worth of margaritas to start feeling saucy. To add insult to injury, Blockheads serves up their drinks in cheapo six-ounce plastic cups with no mini-umbrellas, cocktail-stirrers or swivel sticks. Not even a fun straw.

Let's give a hearty welcome to Wondee Siam, the latest addition to Morningside's new roster of promising-sounding restaurants. The restaurant will be opening on Amsteram and 107th -- a bold move, as that's right across the street from Thai Market -- and will be the Wondee Siam chain's fourth location.

According to Eating in Translation, the grand opening will coincide with the start of school. Reviews throughout the Internet are generally positive. And also, there's apparently a secret menu written only in Thai.

Add Radio Perfecto to the growing list of Morningside establishments to bite the dust. Signs (right) have been hanging outside the bar announcing the bar's "vacation" since early July.

But what brought about the covert demise of Radio Perfecto? If the enraged graffiti poetry on the sign is any indication, it was a conspiracy involving President Bush and grocery stores, obviously. Our informant/photographer has dutifully transcribed this startling revelation:

"You insulted / Pres Bush / Now you are bankrupt" "Oh. So _that's_ what / happened to the / rest of the country!" and "This place had an insulting caricature / of the president behind the bar for years. / What business idiots. I guess we will get / another grocery now."

Except despite this conspiracy theorist's horrible poetry, which foretold of "another grocery", it looks like Radio Perfecto's old space will now be home to a Southern home cooking restaurant, a self-described "taste of home in the heart of the city."

It's called Haakon's Hall and we have details (plus their advertisements) after the jump.

Bwog loves food, especially cheap food. Bwog also loves Brooklyn. Indeed, Bwog loves Brooklyn Restaurant Week. Here, Bwog offers a selective assortment of some Brooklyn Restaurant Week stand-outs. If lines are long at the participating restaurants, Bwog provides a few noteworthy non-participating restaurants.

Unfortunately the borough publicizes rather humbly and Bwog just learned of the event. But don't despair! Restaurant Week lasts until Monday night.

Participating Restaurants:

Bacchus Bistro: 409 Atlantic Avenue (718) 852 1572
Simple French fare in an elegant and understated atmosphere. As its name suggests, the wine list is excellent.

Blue Ribbon/ Blue Ribbon Sushi: 280 (718) 840 0408 5th Avenue
Large menus and large portions is the MO at the Brooklyn outpost of the Manhattan favorite by the same name. Bwog recommends their pulled pork sandwich!

For the last minute planner, Bwog correspondent George Olive offers a well-educated selection of options for the elite diner in search of a romantic night out.

Restaurants

Porcão Churrascaria

Though unconventional, a top churrascaria may be the perfect place to take your lover. At Porcão and similar establishments, diners pay a fixed price and then sit back as well-dressed waiters canvass the dining room with everything from bacon-wrapped filets to pork sausage to prime rib. The meat at Porcão is clearly the main attraction, and it delivers. The space itself is wholly recessed—as if you designed a dining room and then pushed all the walls back.

Bwog's resident gastronomic correspondent Michael Snyder serves up (!) advice on where to go and how to get seated during restaurant week.

Some say Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year; I say it's restaurant week. Although this winter's restaurant week is already halfway finished, you still have five days left—January 28-February 1—to enjoy three-course prix fixe lunches and dinners ($24 and $35, respectively) at some of the city's best eateries. Below, some simple advice for the remaining days of the best thing to happen to penny-pinching foodies since sliced whole-grain bread.

Start out by consulting a list of the restaurants participating this season on the restaurant week website. Some restaurants only offer the restaurant week deal for lunch or dinner, others for both. Similarly, some places take reservations, others don't. As you make your list of places you want to go, there are several important things to keep in mind. First of all, be aware of the restaurants' typical prices. Don't waste restaurant week on anything but the most expensive places; you want to use this opportunity to eat at restaurants you would not be able to afford otherwise. And be sure to look carefully. Some places that appear unaffordable offer lunch deals throughout the year. An example: Jean-Georges Vongerichten's wonderful restaurant Perry St. in the West Village offers a $24 prix fixe lunch all year. It's a wonderful restaurant, but go some other time.

The winds of change (and frigid, seasonal air) are a'blowin' in Morningside. Beginning with Toast, everyone's favorite spot for a second or third date. Toast has relocated from its previous location on Broadway between LaSalle and Tiemann (right near 125th) and has taken up residence in Carne's old spot on Broadway and 105th. With Manhattanville's development in the works, this seems a bit counter-intuitive to Bwog, as property values in precisely Toast's old location are sure to skyrocket. Nonetheless, we look forward to schlepping just as far to Toast, this time in the other direction.

Farther up on Broadway, big news for Pinkberry devotees in the form of its latest flavor addition: coffee. Bwog picked the brain of Pinkberry cashier Shadenia who explained that many customers have been sampling coffee, but not many have been ordering it. "They have to get used to it." Those quickly-adapting coffee converts are enjoying the new flavor with chestnuts, a new seasonal topping. (To those following Pinkberry's seasonal ingredients, winter's chestnut is replacing fall's pomegranate seeds.) "I'm not really a coffee person," said Shadenia, quite seriously.

Bwog observed six customers in Pinkberry, none with coffee. Melanie and Angela ate original and green tea, respectively. They seem underwhelmed about the addition of the coffee flavor and had no plans to try it. "It's the same category as green tea," Angela explained. Bwog asked for clarification. "There's original. And then the other flavors are green tea and coffee." Brows furrowed, Bwog exited Pinkberry.

And no recapitulation of developments in Columbia and its environs would be complete without a salute to the new EC elevators. The vaguely space station-y silver elevators are just as sterile and ugly (metal mesh!) as the old EC elevators, the design of which Bwog can barely remember.

- JNW

Located just off of LaSalle on Broadway, two-month-old China de Puebla serves up an intruiguing array of Chinese-Mexican fusion, or as they put it: "Mexican food with a Chinese accent." I'm pretty sure that the young restaurant's business will pick up once it lands a liquor license, but when I went on Friday night, I saw only two other couples in the entire restaurant. The trendy décor contributed to the feeling that this restaurant would be more at home farther downtown--but it's not, and it'll be a welcome infusion of imagination into the Morningside restaurant scene (and takeout options!). The owner also plans to hold regular happy hours and also mentioned converting the restaurant to a more bar-like atmosphere in the evenings (maybe after the competition started closing up shop).

The food, though pricey, was inventive and ambitious. Tortilla and shrimp crisps substituted for the run-of-the mill chip basket (for those who are unfamiliar, shrimp chips are an Asian snack food with a texture similar to Styrofoam) with a fresh pico de gallo. For an appetizer, I had the Hoisin Braised Duck Carnitas Empanada, a wonderful combination of Asian style duck in a fluffy shell with a chipotle aioli sauce. For the main course, I had two tempura shrimp tacos with black beans and a wasabi crème sauce. I couldn't taste much of the shrimp--wasabi doesn't give itself to subtle flavors--but it was prepared excellently.

The menu changes regularly, as the one listed on the restaurant website is quite different from the one they were serving this past week. The service was excellent and very attentive, although being one of six patrons probably helped. Worth a visit, at least to give them credit for a not-your-typical-student-fare concept.

Appetizers $9, Entrée $17, Dessert $7.

Picture yanked from www.mouthfulsfood.com.

Restaurant Week is upon us! It's your semiannual shot at climbing into the City's swankest restaurants through the backdoor--you best hurry to make those reservations before your time runs out next Friday. Surveying the offerings, Bwog freelancer Bari Weiss takes us to Bolo, the Spanish sensation run by that guy you may have seen on TV.

I must admit, I don't get Bobby Flay's appeal. As an avid Iron Chef America enthusiast, Flay always struck me as awkward in front of the camera, at times even coming off as irritated. For his fans, this is precisely Flay's allure; his awkwardness is charming, his irritation is edgy, his furrowed brow evidence of the ingenious recipes marinating in his head.

But what most of us know of Flay is just branding. And though image seems increasingly important in the world of food, chefs still earn their reputations with what comes out of the kitchen. Flay may not have been able to woo me with any of his four shows on the Food Network—but could he win me over with the recipes that have won him high praise? I set off for Bolo (23 East 22^nd Street), a participant in this year's Restaurant Week, to try some of the food that earned the joint a rare three stars from the New York Times.

Bolo calls itself contemporary Spanish cuisine and gets its name not from the tie or the hat, but from its two partners: Bobby Flay ("Bo") and Laurence Kretchmer ("Lo"). Unlike similarly priced bistros, it doesn't take itself too seriously. Excellent service creates a warm atmosphere, even as the Picasso-esque wallpaper feels a bit dizzying (perhaps "eclectic" and "fun" in interior design-speak, but strikingly similar to the mass-produced collage paper swathing your neighborhood Starbucks).

Floridita
3219 Broadway (at 126th Street)
Average entrée, roughly $8

Si te gusta la comida barata y rica, y si puedes entender estas palabras, el restaurante de tus sueños está situado cerca de la universidad.

You don't need to comprehend that sentence to appreciate Floridita, the large celery-green restaurant in south Manhattanville. It has all the elements of a consciously homey eatery like Denny's, but it's actually possible to eat there without feeling queasy—really, you'd be hard-pressed not to enjoy yourself.

Floridita, which draws its primary culinary influences from Dominican- and Cuban-style cooking, is one of the most instantly appealing restaurants within a fifteen-block radius. Its buttery interior (complete with wide windows and skylight) entices casual passersby, its super-low price range glues them to their chairs, and its unpretentious offerings keep them coming back for more.

Sick of John Jay already? Afraid of spending money at on the hit-and-miss restaurant scene in Morningside? Bwog staffers Izumi Devalier and Iggy Cortez have been around the block, and have a few pointed recommendations for securing sustenance on campus and off.

A - 947 Columbus Ave., between 106^th and 107^th

Yeah, we know: it's out there. But this hole-in-the-wall French-Caribbean restaurant offers sweet and savory fusion dishes at affordable prices. Disclaimer: Don't expect to flood this restaurant with your entire entourage of Carman floormates. The place is no bigger than a John Jay single, which is exactly why A, with its glorious BYOB (or W) policy, is best reserved for intimate dinners.

What to Eat: Unless you're dying for a curry-laced reinterpretation of escargot, pick-up a red Burgundy at near-by M.E.R. liquors and opt for the roast duck leg with couscous. Don't forget your corkscrew!

Amsterdam Café - 119^th and Amsterdam

Columbia students deserted this former watering hole after it went all high-end Palo Alto. A pity, as the delicious dinner and breakfast options outweigh its air of steely pretentiousness. A particularly good place to head for breakfast if you tire of facing the vicious brunch wait-list at Kitchenette.

What to Get: For dinner, just get a whole bunch of their delicious appetizers. Such as their scrumptious ribs and the saganaki, and end it with an apple crisp for dessert. Their brunch pancakes are light and fluffy and served with genuinely fresh fruit.